People We Meet on Vacation

By: Emily Henry

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers and Beach Read comes a sparkling novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations.

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Newsweek ∙ Oprah Magazine ∙ The Skimm ∙ Marie Claire ∙ Parade ∙ The Wall Street Journal ∙ Chicago Tribune ∙ PopSugar ∙ BookPage ∙ BookBub ∙ Betches ∙ SheReads ∙ Good Housekeeping ∙ BuzzFeed ∙ Business Insider ∙ Real Simple ∙ Frolic ∙ and more!

©2021 Emily Henry (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“What Henry is especially skilled at is writing dialogue. The banter between Poppy and Alex is so natural, quick and witty that it would make Shonda Rhimes do a slow clap.” (The Associated Press)

“The strength of People We Meet on Vacation [is] the clever observations, the dialogue (which is laugh-out-loud funny) and, most particularly, the characters. Funny and fumbling and lovable, they’re most decidedly worth the trip." (The Wall Street Journal)

“Henry’s biggest strength is in the sparkling, often laugh-out-loud-funny dialogue, particularly the banter-filled conversations between Poppy and Alex. The end result is a story that pays homage to classic romantic comedies while having a point of view all its own. A warm and winning When Harry Met Sally update that hits all the perfect notes.” (Kirkus Reviews)

Eh.

Great story development and rise in action, but then let down. There are better choices for an easy summer read.

Childish main characters

The main characters are very childish. I understand wanting to maintain a friendship but GROW UP. You would think they’re in HS or one of them is married.

A love story

It really isn’t about the people we meet on vacation it is about a couple who can’t find themselves.

Great character development

Loved this feel good story. The characters were both so likeable and interesting. I looked forward to my dog walks so I could listen to this book. I am going to listen to Emily Henry’s earlier novel next!

Disappointed

I was really looking forward to reading this book. I expected funny and light. But the book has long explanations of all the places they vacationed. It lost my interest pretty quickly. And the sappy romance of Alex and Poppy was predictable from page one. Bummer.

Worth the listen or read

While I was at times captivated by the story, other times I was ready to put it down and come back to it. I pushed on. While it was very predictable, it was overall pleasant. Not a must read though IMO. Great performance though. As a male reader maybe I was missing something, but most of my favorite books were penned by female authors. Anyway, if you are considering this book, go for it.

A lovely summer read

This is the first fiction book I have read in entirety in years. I loved the flashbacks to summers before and how the story developed “this summer.”

Very entertaining and touching

Poppy and Alex are polar opposites. She is wild and talkative, while he is controlled and serious. But they strike a friendship in college and travel together every summer until their platonic relationship takes a different turn.

Good beach read

Entertaining and mostly light hearted. Just wish the narrator didn’t make the voice of the male main character,Alex, sound like a clenched-jawed country club snob. It made it hard to like the character.

Misleading Title…

Good easy reading, just not what I thought.
Going back and forth between the years was easy to keep up with - just very long, requiring many chapters to write about the current time period. I was mad that it took so long…